This weekend we went camping with the dogs to the Seven Devil's Wilderness Area in Idaho. We left Friday after work on the 3.5 hour drive south, listening to the Redskins preseason opener against the Bills. Watch out NFC East, we are coming for you!
After the long drive we settled into camp. We were camping in the Seven Devil's Campground, which has many nice spots and was super quiet. We were about 7000 feet up and once the sun went behind the peaks to our west the temperatures dropped fast. Our possibly suspect REI key chain thermometer said it was in the 20's. My internal thermometer disagreed, but John thought it was pretty accurate. We had dinner by the fire pit and went to sleep after spending some time stargazing at the Milky Way.
The next morning we were up around 7, ate our breakfast, loaded up our day hiking packs and hit the trail. Our goal was to hike about 4.5 miles to Cannon Lake, spend some time there, and then find our way to Upper Cannon Lake. The hike started off really nice since it was a gorgeous morning and the trail started off downhill. We passed a ranger station with a pen of donkeys and horses that appeared to have free roam of the area. Luckily, for some reason, Chester and Margo ignored them and off we went. Along the way we had some great views of the surrounding areas and possibly the ridges along our first backpacking trip at nearby Rapid River.
John and the Dogs beginning the hike
We made it to Cannon Lake and enjoyed the views and some snacks along the shore. The dogs waded a bit in the water and we planned our route to Upper Cannon Lake. The trail book mentioned that it took some route finding skills and some bushwhacking to get to the lake, but it would be worth it, so we figured, why not? We brought a topo map and had the trail book's description of how to get there, so we figured we'd climb a ridge to the north side of Cannon Lake and then head up and to the west.
Kelly trying to figure out where to go next
The long hard slope up
It was not an easy hike! We were climbing over fallen trees, crossing streams, and constantly heading up the slope. The sun had come out full on against a brilliant blue sky, which looked great, but zapped your energy from the heat. Upper Cannon Lake is around 8200 feet up, so we were gaining about 1000 feet from Lower Cannon Lake in about 1.8 miles. It started getting pretty exhausting. Our chosen path finally led us to the side of a rock face where we rested for a bit and let the dogs have some water and relax in the shade. We were getting higher up the slope, so we figured we were on the right path.
Kelly and Chester Resting in the Shade
Next came more climbing over rocks and trees and through shrubs and across streams to what we thought was the waterfall mentioned in the book. I got the dogs to cool off in the stream while John wandered up higher to get a better idea if we were close. All he could see at the top was a shady grove of trees, which he figured would be another nice spot to rest. I brought the dogs up there and we hung out in the shade for a good half hour. It actually started getting kind of cold. After some discussion on whether to go on with the dogs or turn around, I headed up to take a look. At the top, I finally saw the real waterfall mentioned in the book, which was supposed to be not far from the upper lake. So onward we went!
Kelly Amongst the Wild Flowers
There were some amazing fields of wildflowers in front of the waterfall and it was quite a picturesque scene leading up to it. As we started climbing the trail, our previous incline seemed slight compared to this--it was tiring. We had thought we were in great shape from running, but man, a step incline at close to 8200 feet will get your heart racing. We finally got to the top of the waterfall and saw snow (pretty neat to see in the middle of August as we're dripping in sweat). We went further down the path and came across a meadow leading up to the Upper Cannon Lake. We had made it!
John at Upper Cannon Lake Below The Goblin
The lake is surrounded by 3 of the Seven Devil's Peaks: the Goblin, the Tower of Babel, and She Devil. The water was glacial blue and clear enough to see fish swimming many yards out. Chester and Margo played in the water and in the mud for bit, and then it was time to head back down.
Of course as we are going down, Chester finds the real trail that we should have taken all along. We apparently blazed a new trail on the way up and roughed it to the extreme. The actually trail would be nice and clear for a while and then disappear into the overgrowth and fallen trees. When this happened, we would stand around and spot the cairn, a pile of rocks used to make a trail, and continue on.
All was going smooth and it almost seemed that Margo and Chester had a sixth sense for finding the rocks and getting us down faster. At one point we had lost the trail again and Chester took off up ahead while John and Margo went another direction. He jumped over a log, landed in a hole, and came up limping. Uh, we were still a mile or so from lower Cannon Lake and then 4.5 miles back to our camp spot. This was trouble. We let Chester rest while we looked him over. Touching his leg, shoulder, and paw he showed no signs of injury, but he wouldn't put any weight on it. We needed to keep moving since nothing was going to come and help us, so me and Margo went ahead to figure out where the trail headed (Chester, of course, was heading in the right direction when he hurt himself). John picked him up and started carrying him as far as he could and then rested while we figured out the trail. Margo seemed to either be worried about Chester or was getting hungry for dinner, but she was picking out the trail like crazy. Eventually Chester started putting weight back on his leg and we slowly moved down the ridgeline and made it back towards the lower Cannon Lake.
We then headed back to our camp spot slow and steady, and every so often Chester would put more weight on his leg and limp less. After a mile he seemed to have forgotten that he hurt himself and was diving at chipmunks again. Hot, tired, and a little freaked out, we hiked out back up towards the rangers station. There, we found the pens open, but what before were donkeys and horses was now lots of cows. It was rather amusing to see Margo chase the cows. This lifted our spirits and tired bodies and out of the wilderness we came. We made it to our camping site and the dogs crashed out and fell right to sleep.
The Seven Devils From Heaven's Gate Lookout
The next morning we awoke and packed up our stuff and headed to Heaven's Gate Lookout at about 7:30am. It was a beautiful vantage point to see the Seven Devils, the Wallowa Mountains, and 4 states (Idaho, Oregon, Montana, and Washington). We spent some time up there admiring the views and then headed home. With one more final passing of some cows on the mountain road, we were done with the wild.
These Cows Didn't Want Us To Pass